Word: klaus
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Will he sign it or will he spike it? That's the question lingering in Europe's capitals as Czech President Vaclav Klaus holds the key to the European Union's future...
...Czech government first submitted the treaty for ratification in parliament in January 2008, but its opponents, encouraged by euroskeptic Klaus, managed to put the painstakingly negotiated accord on the back burner for over a year. Finally, the Czech Senate was the last parliamentary chamber in the E.U. to approve the treaty on May 6, passing the hot potato onto the president, whose signature is required for ratification. Klaus, 67, opposes the treaty as a boon to the E.U.'s bigger members and a threat to his country's sovereignty, and he has since kept Europe on tenterhooks as it waits...
...reform blueprint if Ireland does - Irish voters turned down the treaty in a referendum last June and another vote is scheduled for the fall. (Since the treaty needs unanimous approval, the Irish rejection essentially blocks it from going into effect.) "The Lisbon Treaty is dead for the moment," Klaus said after the Senate vote. "Therefore, my decision on its ratification is not on the agenda for the time being." The president's followers in the Senate also plan to challenge the treaty in the Constitutional Court, the Czech Republic's highest court, and Klaus has said he won't make...
...Klaus, an economist by training, is a highly divisive veteran of Czech post-communist politics who had served as finance minister and prime minister before becoming president in 2003. He was re-elected to the five-year office last year. The Czech president is no stranger to controversy. A dogged critic of all things E.U., Klaus most recently likened the bloc to the Soviet Union. He is also a rare yet prominent global warming doubter - he does not believe that climate change is caused by man and has called costly measures to curb it a waste. (See pictures of Victory...
...says Berlin's mayor, Klaus Wowereit, as an entourage of transvestites in Bavarian drag saunter past in the theater courtyard. "I'm glad it's playing in Berlin now. A musical can't hurt anyone. After all, it's a parody of Hitler...